A Tale Blazed Through Heaven: Imitation and Invention in the Golden Age of Spain

A Tale Blazed Through Heaven charts the development of representations of the mythological tale of Mars, Venus, and Vulcan from its origins in Classical Antiquity to its reception in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Spain. Analysing in detail a number of works of literature and art from what is now known as Spain’s ‘Golden Age’ – the period of Cervantes, Velazquez, Calderon, and others – it explores some of the reasons behind the popularity of the tale amongst both canonical and less well-known writers and painters. In so doing, it sheds lights on a number of aspects of the literary and visual culture of the Early Modern period, both in Spain and, by extension, Europe as a whole.